Luxury Model Wife (28 page)

“It’s way down at the bottom of the page, in eight font. The logo identifies the person who built the pages. The individual also created the graphics, loaded the text, and completed the updates.”

Victoria leaned over and stared at the icon at the bottom of the home page. “Web design by K-T Graphics, Inc.”

Victoria looked up. “Who are they?”

“She,” Wilson replied. “The question is, ‘Who is she?’”

He drummed his fingers on the edge of the desk in quick rhythms. His expression glowed with triumph. “I cracked the case with the answer.”

Wilson glanced over at Norman Leighton’s office and looked back at Victoria. “Might just get me some respect around here.” He pulled a full-color brochure from his desk drawer and handed it to Victoria. She unfolded the pages to find a photograph of a stunning, blonde-haired woman inside.

Wilson pointed to the picture. “Know her?”

Victoria shook her head.

“Sure?”

Victoria’s heartbeat quickened when she took a second look. The vague memory of a woman standing inside a townhouse foyer swathed in moonlight and a red negligee came into focus.

“It can’t be.” She didn’t want the connection to Jimmy to be true. With a trembling hand, she reached to smooth her long, dark waves, forgetting her singed hair had been cut to chin length after the fire.

Victoria turned the picture over to Steve, who took one look at the photo and tossed the brochure on the desk with a grunt.

“Now I remember.” Victoria recalled the night she brought Steve to Jimmy’s townhouse after the bar fight with Arnold Flynn. “Her name is Katherine.”

Wilson picked the ad up again and fanned it through his fingers. “Right. Katherine Sterling. I had a nice, long chat with her yesterday. She’s in custody, by the way.” Wilson grinned.

Steve fidgeted in his seat. “You cops are all the same. Will you just spit it out and save the suspense? Who the hell is Katherine Sterling and what does she have to do with this case?”

Wilson slapped his chest. “You’re killing me here, Carlson. How else do you think we cops amuse ourselves after catching bad guys? We tell our stories.”

He rattled the brochure. “Katherine Sterling was the go-between for Pinnacle Antiques Auctions and Arnold Flynn and Benjamin Slater. She was promised a piece of the Van Orr pie for acting as their filter.”

Victoria said, “She used Pinnacle as a reference when she offered to build Jimmy’s website.”

Wilson’s voice crackled with obvious pleasure. “Right. Beautiful woman, rich doctor. Jimmy probably thought he’d struck gold when she started sleeping with him, too.”

“Jimmy always did like the ladies,” Steve said with a scowl.

“Which probably suited her purposes,” Wilson said. “She was keeping a close eye on the money.”

Steve smirked. “I bet that hurt his inflated ego when he found out.”

Just then, Lieutenant Leighton exited his office and made his way to Wilson’s desk. He shook hands with Steve and Victoria. “Just thought you’d like to know we got a confession from Bruce Mitchell during a plea agreement with the D.A. He and Carlos Vega have been burglarizing antiques shops in our area for years and reselling the goods. They’re the ones who ripped you off each time.”

“Bastards.” Steve’s face flushed with fury.

“Pirate was our witness,” Victoria said. “Too bad he can’t testify. Carlos probably talked to him again the night he and Bruce cleaned out the shop.”

“Here’s the twist.” Leighton rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled while he shook his head. “Mitchell wants to know if he can buy that Rohmer doll from you after it’s returned from the evidence room. The doll is the main reason they risked another break-in.”

Steve stood and jerked his chair aside. “They gambled with our lives for that damned doll?”

Leighton nodded. “Like crack to an addict, my friend.”

“And Jimmy Van Orr would have his revenge.” Steve made a fist. “I never saw it coming.”

The lieutenant slapped him on the shoulder. “Officer Wilson will explain. I’ll be in touch.” He returned to his office.

“What’s all this have to do with my father, Flynn, the burglaries, and the fire?” Victoria asked Officer Wilson.

“Flynn is a private detective and Slater’s old cellmate. From what we’ve been able to piece together, Slater hired him first to find your mother.”

“Why?” Victoria asked. “After all these years, why did he care about her?”

“I don’t think he cared, Mrs. Van Orr,” the cop replied. “I just think he had nowhere else to go when he got out of prison the last time. Maybe he hoped he still had a hold on her. Considering what happened afterward, it seems he was right.”

Wilson continued. “He stayed at her place for a few months and pumped her for information about you after she bragged about your privileged life. Your mother made the mistake of telling him about your wealthy late husband, and he started using the Van Orr name as an alias. I guess he wanted to sound important.”

Wilson offered a tight smile. “I talked to your mom. She said to tell you she’s sorry.”

Victoria’s mind reeled. “I can hardly believe she let my father stay with her, especially after all she’d gone through with him.” The idea of them together sparked anger inside her that dissolved into sadness.

The officer made sympathetic noises. “Once Slater learned you sent your mother a monthly allowance, he wanted in. But he had a much bigger appetite than a regular check in the mail. He wanted a piece of the inheritance. So he promised Flynn a payout to find his rich daughter and help him steal from you. All that took was an internet search, patience, and a few dollars. When Flynn found you, they came to town.

“Flynn and Slater drove cross-country, planning to hit you up for some money, steal what they could from the Van Orr collection in Pinnacle’s storage facility, and fence the items for cash. But by the time they got here, things had changed.”

“I’d given the consignment to Carlson’s.” Victoria looked at Steve and saw that his lips had formed a hard line. “And moved the goods into Carlson’s store and warehouse instead.”

“Right.” Wilson shifted in his chair and sat back to cross his legs. “The guys at Pinnacle were sure they’d win back the consignment.”

“But I refused to budge,” Victoria added.

“Right again,” Wilson said. “That’s when things got sticky.”

The cop continued with his story. “Jimmy was furious for his own reasons about the change in plans and complained to Katherine Sterling. She was cozy with the guys at Pinnacle and knew they had an illegal sideline.”

He gave Steve the stink eye. “Your bar fight with Flynn, and recovery at Jimmy Van Orr’s place, tipped her off. She probably did a little digging, learned Flynn had a rap sheet and had done time, and set out to meet him.

“When she did, Flynn introduced her to Slater. Those two missed out on the goods inside the store because Mitchell and Vega had already stolen them. So Flynn and Slater decided to burglarize the warehouse. Katherine Sterling helped them work a deal with the guys at Pinnacle to fence
all
the goods and share the profits.”

“The Van Orr collections would have been too hot to stay in the area,” Steve said. “Mitchell and Vega knew they were taking an unusual risk with high-profile merchandise.”

“So why take it in the first place?” Victoria demanded.

Steve turned to her. “Retaliation.”

Wilson nodded. “Exactly.”

“If they couldn’t benefit, they wanted to make damn sure you and Carlson wouldn’t.”

“Then Mitchell kept the Rohmer French fashion doll and got caught.” Victoria let out a sigh. “The money from the fenced goods wasn’t enough for them.”

Wilson lifted his chin. “We would have caught them sooner or later.”

“Did Jimmy take part in the thefts?” Victoria asked.

Wilson shook his head. “We’re not sure how deeply he’s involved. His girlfriend might have filled him in after the fact, but we can’t prove he was part of the conspiracy.”

Victoria turned toward Steve with heaviness like stone in her chest. “I’m sorry. You wouldn’t be going through any of this if you hadn’t met me. You’ve lost almost everything.”

Steve’s voice cracked. “
Almost
everything?” He leveled a stare that made her shiver. He jerked his head toward Wilson, indicating he couldn’t say what he wanted because the cop was listening. But Victoria understood the implication. Steve had not only lost his business—he had lost her, too.

A sense of overwhelming guilt washed over her. Hadn’t she shared her most intimate self with him? Hadn’t she told him he was The One?

Was he still?

Victoria let out a breath. That subject would have to wait. “Then what happened?”

Wilson tapped his index finger against his temple. “Until Katherine Sterling entered the picture, I couldn’t find the thread between Flynn and Slater, the owners of Pinnacle, and Jimmy Van Orr. There was obviously a connection between the burglary at Carlson’s store and the warehouse break-in and fire, but we didn’t know what that was.”

He snapped his fingers. “Until Katherine Sterling was exposed as the link. She was not only a website administrator and Jimmy Van Orr’s lover but the person who hacked your security system, Mr. Carlson. The woman has skills.”

Just then, Jimmy Van Orr entered the station, flanked by lawyers. His gait seemed relaxed, as if he had nothing to worry about, but his pallor was ashen beneath his expensive suit. He met Victoria and Steve’s eyes as he passed them on his way to the interview room.

Officer Wilson stretched and linked his arms around the back of his neck. “Slater had a sense of entitlement as Victoria’s father. He and Flynn brought a stolen truck to fence the Van Orr goods with a network of criminals who had no local connections. There’s no way you could have known.”

“Two separate, but related burglaries,” Victoria said. “No one expected the fire.”

She glanced toward the interview room.

“May I speak with him?” Victoria stood, as if the question wasn’t a request. She was determined to hear the truth from Jimmy’s own lips.

“Sure.” Wilson led the way to the interview room. He opened the door and waited for Victoria to enter before closing it behind her.

Jimmy sat inside with his attorneys, arms folded on the desk. His expression tightened when Victoria walked into the room. She dragged a chair from the corner and pulled it over to the table. The attorneys looked on, impassive. One of them whispered something into Jimmy’s ear.

“Tell me what happened,” she said. “Were you part of this?”

Jimmy looked exhausted. He rubbed his eyes. “Don’t. Just stop, okay? I might be a fool, but I’m not a monster. You know that. You’ve always known that.” His brown eyes reflected pain and remorse, and for an instant, Victoria saw James there.

Jimmy looked over at the lawyers. “Can I tell her? Do we have a deal with the D.A?”

The lawyers nodded.

“I didn’t know who stole from Carlson’s store until later. Katherine came over to my place and gloated about it. I had no idea they’d also planned to hit the warehouse. It was almost like she thought she was doing me a favor.”

Jimmy rubbed his face between his hands. “We fought about what she’d done. What
they
had done. I saw Katherine clearly for the first time then. On her way out the door she dared me to go the police. She warned me not to antagonize Flynn. She said he was capable of murder and I believed her.”

“She threatened you?” Fear shot ice water through Victoria’s veins.

Jimmy lowered his gaze and shook his head. “Not me.” When he met her eyes again she saw terror in their depths.

Her heart beat fast as understanding dawned. “It was me she threatened, wasn’t it?”

Jimmy nodded and rubbed the corners of his eyes with the tips of his fingers. “She said Flynn would kill you if I didn’t keep my mouth shut.”

His fists clenched the tabletop until his knuckles turned white. “I couldn’t let anything happen to you. I agreed to keep quiet if they left town and never bothered us again.”

Jimmy swallowed and then continued talking. “The warehouse fire changed everything.”

Victoria’s palms went damp. She hadn’t suspected Jimmy was in trouble. Not for a second.

Jimmy asked for a cold drink and one of his lawyers made arrangements with an officer outside the door. A moment later, they brought him a soft drink and he took a long swallow.

He met her eyes. “My feelings for you have been confused for a long time. It was hard not to…notice you.” He shook his head and looked away. “There were times when I hated you, too.”

Victoria could barely hear him now, because the emotional energy in the room swelled like a living entity. She could hardly breathe.

Jimmy turned back to her, his features contorted with anguish. He pointed an accusatory finger. “You’re half my mother’s age. What right did my father have to tarnish her memory with a trophy wife?”

Jimmy’s words stung like an open palm across her cheek. She wanted to shout, “It wasn’t like that.” Instead, she said nothing.

He seemed to accept her silence as an invitation to continue. “What right did you have to his money? My father and grandfather worked hard to build the Van Orr empire.” Jimmy’s voice cracked. He kneaded the back of his neck then dropped his hands back to the tabletop.

Victoria stared at his lean, strong fingers. Hands that healed the sick and the desperate. Could she abandon the son of the man who had saved her? Didn’t he need her now?

“Sometimes I wanted you,” Jimmy continued. He looked at the floor and a trace of color returned to his cheeks. “There were even times I thought in some crazy way I could replace my father after he’d gone.”

He shook his head. “Other times I wanted you to just…disappear. What was I supposed to do about you? How did you fit into my life after Dad died? I didn’t know.”

Victoria didn’t know, either. She’d never quite figured out how to be stepmother to a man almost her age.

Suddenly, through a veil of overwhelming weariness, her life with James seemed a long time ago.

Jimmy’s eyes pleaded. “You blindsided me with the Carlson deal and I got mad. All I ever wanted was to be a doctor. And Carlson was supposed to be my partner. Instead, he ended up being yours. The irony was just too much.”